Pac-12 confident in future expansion after Gonzaga addition | CSU Rams

Saturday’s meeting in Corvallis will be the first of many over the coming years between Colorado State and Oregon State.

The Rams and Beavers have met only three times on the football field but will be meeting every year starting in 2026 as members of the new-look Pac-12.

“An exciting precursor to the official start here in two years,” Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes told The Denver Gazette this week. “As you can imagine, I’ve been on a bunch of Zoom (calls) with (CSU athletic director) John (Weber) and I talked to him on the phone a lot and it’ll be great to finally meet him, as well as president (Amy) Parsons in person. We’re looking forward to having them and hosting them here and really excited to get this relationship started.”

In many ways, CSU and OSU are ideal partners in the rebuilding conference. They’re both former land-grant universities with similar enrollments, similar rankings among U.S. universities, similar-sized football stadiums and head coaches who make a similar annual salary.

Speaking of stadiums, the Rams’ on-campus stadium, Canvas Stadium, opened in 2017 and the first visitors were the Beavers — a game CSU won 58-27.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that CSU was a part of the group of four Mountain West schools that announced last month they’d be joining Oregon State and Washington State in the Pac-12 in 2026.

“There’s a lot there, obviously,” Barnes said. “Looking at the vision, the leadership, the upside potential that they have, the facilities, obviously the new football stadium, geography, the academic success of the university, a like-mindedness in wanting to ascend from where we all sit. All those things are important factors at Colorado State as well as the other Mountain West schools. Super attractive partners.

“There’s a lot of things that we evaluate. But certainly, things like a complete stadium renovation and the resounding signal it sends on your investment in football is critical. So that certainly played a part in where we sit today.”

When the move was announced three weeks ago, all the momentum sat with the Pac-12, with OSU and Wazzu receiving praise for sticking it out after being abandoned by 10 Pac-12 members that jumped ship for the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12.

Even though a popular Mountain West target like UNLV and potential suitors from the American Athletic Conference (AAC) like Memphis and Tulane announced commitments to their current conferences, the Pac-12 likes where it sits today.

Utah State became the seventh full member last week. A few days ago, the Pac-12 made a huge splash in adding Gonzaga, which brings plenty of weight even without a football program.

“If you were to tell me three weeks ago, prior to the Mountain West acquisitions, where I’d wanna be now, it’s about right where I’d wanna be with what we have,” Barnes said. “Gonzaga is one of the most iconic basketball brands in America. That, coupled with the geographic footprint and, again, a program that has invested mightily in their sports led by basketball is very exciting and I think creates additional opportunities for us as we think about further expansion.”

While Barnes said revisiting potential bids for Mountain West schools like UNLV is “certainly not in our sights,” maybe Memphis and another AAC school like Tulane, UTSA or Rice comes back into play to help get the conference to the eight required football members to qualify as an FBS conference. And maybe the Pac-12 leans further into a niche as a dominant basketball conference by adding a few more competitive programs like Saint Mary’s and Grand Canyon.

“All of our options continue to be on the table,” Barnes said. “We’re gonna take some of the John Wooden wisdom and ‘be quick but not hurry.’ We took on Gonzaga because it is one of the foremost iconic brands in America and that is sort of what we’re aiming for. So, to add additional schools, we’ll have a high bar there as we round out the eight for football.”

Whatever happens over the next year, the Pac-12 will continue to be creative. Maybe that means welcoming back California-Berkeley and Stanford if those schools find life in the ACC not what it was expected to be.

The creativity goes for securing a media rights deal for the conference, as well.

“As we rewrite the book on what collegiate athletics looks like, we have to rewrite the book on what media agreements look like and that includes new, innovative ideas, value-added opportunities galore and really opening up the playbook to re-imagine what that could look like,” Barnes said.

As Colorado State and Oregon State will prove Saturday at Reser Stadium, the Pac-12 is back.

“I love where we sit,” Barnes said.

5 Games to Watch

Air Force vs. Navy (10 a.m., CBS)

Service-academy rivalries make for must-watch football. Sure, this isn’t the same Falcons team Troy Calhoun has led to nine-plus wins in four of the last five seasons. But we saw what an underdog Army team did to a good Air Force team last season. Army and Navy currently are unbeaten, but Air Force will likely have something to say about the fight for the Commander-In-Chief’s trophy.

King’s pick: Air Force +10

No. 25 Texas A&M vs. No. 9 Missouri (10 a.m., ABC)

Despite an unbeaten start, Mizzou hasn’t looked like the team many thought would compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. This is its biggest litmus test to date, and it comes on the road against a Texas A&M team that has rebounded well from a season-opening loss to Notre Dame. The loser of this game will likely have its CFP hopes dashed.

King’s pick: Missouri +2.5

South Carolina vs. No. 12 Ole Miss (1:30 p.m., ESPN)

After scoring 40-plus points in each of its first four games, the Ole Miss offense was held in check during a home loss to Kentucky. Now, a seemingly easy schedule looks a lot tougher with back-to-back road games before a visit to Oxford from Oklahoma. This difficult stretch begins in Columbia against a frisky Gamecocks team that handed a beatdown to the same Kentucky team that knocked off the Rebels.

King’s pick: South Carolina +9

Arkansas vs. No. 4 Tennessee (5:30 p.m., ABC)

With only one ranked-vs.-ranked game on the schedule, there aren’t a ton of heavyweight bouts. But there are several potential trap games for top teams. The Volunteers have had one of the better starts to the season of anyone in the country, but they’ve also lost three straight in Fayetteville. Tennessee passed its first road test of the season at Oklahoma and will have another one this weekend.

King’s pick: Tennessee -13.5

California vs. No. 8 Miami (8:30 p.m., ESPN)

Speaking of trap games on the road, a cross-country trip to Berkeley (also the site of “College GameDay” this week) after a nail-biting win over Virginia Tech is not exactly what Miami wanted to see on the schedule. It’s the ultimate clash of cultures as the Hurricanes will be looking to keep their unbeaten start going and continue to prove they’re the class of the ACC.

King’s pick: California +10

King’s YTD picks ATS: 11-9 (3-2 last week)

King’s Top 5 Heisman candidates

1. Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado

There’s no better player in the country, and Hunter knows it, too. He struck the Heisman pose after another stunning interception last week at UCF, where his unteachable corner instincts were on full display as he came out of nowhere to pluck the ball out of the air and into his grasp. Oh, and he had 89 receiving yards and another touchdown in the game.

2. Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State

By himself, Jeanty is the 23rd-best rushing offense in the country. Coming off his second game with over 250 rushing yards in just four weeks, Jeanty is putting up stat lines we haven’t seen from running backs in a long time. He already has 13 touchdowns, one shy of his career-high 14 last season. He’s a one-man offense that doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon in a not-so-good Mountain West.

3. Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama

Milroe had a career-high 374 passing yards and two passing touchdowns to go with 116 yards on the ground and two more touchdowns with his legs. Oh, and he did it against Georgia. Milroe is starting to put it all together in Kalen DeBoer’s offense.

4. Cam Ward, QB, Miami

If not for Ward, the Hurricanes would’ve suffered a typical loss we’ve seen from them in recent years. Instead, Miami was able to pull out a home win over Virginia Tech in a game decided on the final play. Ward accounted for 400 total yards and five touchdowns as he continues to look like the best quarterback Coral Gables has seen in a long time.

5. Tre Harris, WR, Ole Miss

Despite last week’s loss, Harris continues to put up jaw-dropping numbers for Ole Miss. In an SEC full of quality wide receivers, it’s Harris who’s delivering the most consistent performances. He leads the country in receiving yards by over 100 yards and is second in catches and tied for fifth in touchdowns.